RELIGIOUS LITERACY | JANUARY 12, 2021

Surprise: Gen Z More Likely to Believe in God than Millennials

Who would have thought 2020 would end with positive news? Despite the past year’s tumultuous and frenzied events, there is at least some to report. In a late December article, The Times Religious Affairs Correspondent Kaya Burgess writes: “Members of Generation Z in their late teens and early twenties are more likely to believe in God than millennials in their late twenties and thirties, according to polling that suggests the trend for younger people being less religious is changing.”

Girl praying — Photo by MIA Studio/Shutterstock.com

Burgess cites the ease with which this generation can access information about faith online; the internet has put the beliefs of every religion on the planet at our fingertips.

As we move forward into 2021, we should lean into this fact and learn more about each other’s faiths. As Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his 1976 article Religious Influence in Society, “Religion is the first sense of community. Your first sense of community occurs by reason of mutual experience with others.”

During recent hectic months, it seems that religion and believing in God have brought Gen Z hope and offered them this sense of community.

2020 has taught us all a lesson, and maybe Generation Z has taught us how to deal with this year and come out more united. Moving forward, we should do our best to eradicate bias or stigma towards any religion and let our communities, especially our youth, believe and believe freely.

Let’s make 2021 a year of faith—faith in one another, the power of community and religious tolerance.

KEYWORDS

GENERATION Z RELIGIOSITY

AUTHOR

Peter Alemis

Born in Chicago, Peter graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. in Economics. He worked in finance in New York City and Chicago. He is a second-generation Scientologist.

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